Sun Kil Moon - "Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes"

To my ears, the best metal and rap albums of 2014 were Sun Kil Moon's Benji. Of course, no one would classify Mark Kozelek's latest singer-songwriter effort as either genre. But consider this: Benji is emotionally brutal like the best hard rock and dazzling in its wordplay like the finest hip-hop.

A dizzying onslaught of austere arrangements and twisty panic attacks, Benji has so many words on its 11 tracks, so many stories it's anxious to tell. Recalling lost loves, his bad back, the parents he deeply loves, his difficult friendship with Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard, Kozelek spews narratives all over the album, but the specificity of his memoiristic tales makes them oddly universal. Aging, failure, family: They're at the heart of Benji, and we can all relate.

"Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes" is about the notorious serial killer but, in typical Benji fashion, it's about a lot of other things, too. I can't even imagine what it would sound like coming out of Jay Z's mouth.

Red House Painters - "River"

Write about music long enough and you'll start to notice that certain bands that used to be part of your consciousness just drift away into the muck, only to reappear without warning. I haven't thought about Red House Painters in a while. I was utterly charmed by their 1995 album Ocean Beach, but later label woes forced their swan song, Old Ramon, to be delayed for years. Finally, in 2001 it came out. Mark Kozelek couldn't have known it would be the group's final effort, but the album sure sounds that way: resigned, accepting, rather lovely. "River" is Old Ramon's longest track, and it starts off slowly and gracefully before segueing into an intricate layering of electric guitars. I find the song's aching need almost unfathomable -- even more so because I think it's about a cat.